The Best Interface Is No Interface
Instagram, Grab, Lazada. Names familiar to anyone in today’s world. It’s hard to imagine people not using any of them today, yet these were only created within this decade. Even the iPad or AirPods were just made in this decade! It’s clear that there’s been a growing digital presence in our daily lives, from social media, shopping, and the like. Some may call them, innovations, things that could have only been dreamt about years ago. Yet, with all these new and exciting innovations, there’s the flip side with things being made that aren’t exactly innovative.
With that picture of “innovation”, Golden Krishna comes in with his fantastic book, “The Best Interface Is No Interface” where he talks about the unrealized implications that have come with the digital age. Reading this completely changed how I view what innovation truly is and how is it that we can get there. Let me share with you some of my takeaways from the book, and hopefully, it changes you as well.
The Problem With “Innovation”
There’s been massive progress on the way we work. We’ve moved far from writing in the analog, to being able to collaborate with each other remotely. Software has been made easier to use, which in turn, made things easy to make digitally.
It comes as no surprise then that with every tool that can create, there’s an aspiring business that would want to create a solution on it. “Let’s make an app for that!” they exclaim, branding it as an innovation, something that would change the world, when in reality, they simply slapped an interface on something. Krishna mentions this in the book where the questions of how to improve things: “How do you make a better car?” “How do you make a better fridge?” “How do you make a better restaurant” have all the same answer. “Slap an interface on it!”.
Take this “innovation”, opening a door, for example:
Doesn’t it seem like we’re going backwards here? From a two-step process, we over-engineered it to twelve just to accommodate a screen-based solution. And that’s just opening a door! Granted, it may come off as an exaggeration, but if you think about it, are there other “innovative” apps or features within the apps that overcomplicate things with no reason to whatsoever? 🤔
Not to say that this is happening with everyone! There’s a lot of technology that has changed the game, but it would be remiss to say that innovation lies in creating an app. To see things as solvable only under the lens of a screen is similar to having a hammer thinking everything is a nail. There’s bound to be something that won’t be applicable to what you want to get done. Reframe the question from “Can this become an app?” to “What will really bring value to people?”
Now, how do we even begin to answer that? Well…
Embrace Typical Processes Instead of Screens
Talk to people! Talk to both your current and potential customers. Understand where they’re coming from rather than throwing to them an idea they may or may not like. Sometimes what we think is innovative, is actually just novel. An unusual or interesting way of doing things, sure, but not exactly something that would be of value to people. We don’t need to begin with screens. We need to begin where people are. As Krishna says, “embracing a typical process means you can do what you normally do. Avoiding a digital interface means you don’t waste time learning, troubleshooting, and using a screen you don’t need to be using anyway.”
What we have to realize is that whatever it is you’re designing for, your target user most likely already has a way to deal with it. They may already be satisfied with how they do it now, yet have challenges on things that they weren’t even aware of. We need to find out how might we be able to bring more value in our design than how they currently do it now?
For people to switch from their current solution to a new solution, it must be that there’s more something more that the new solution could do for them than the old one. To do that, we need to know how they go about things now and what pain points they have doing it. This is where research, service design, and user experience come in.
We don’t just create screens. We design experiences that bring value to people. We meet people where they are.
Adapt to Individuals
Now, let’s say we get through that hurdle and we’re able to create value for our users. What then? Do we build and earn lots of money? Well, not exactly. Now it’s time to go against competition who have solutions very similar to yours. Whether your competition be an existing business that caters to address what they need to get done to a business that happens to address their needs. How do you differentiate yourself from them? Hint: It’s not just about having flashy aesthetics
You show your users that you know them more. That you’re able to meet them where they are. They’re not users, they’re people. It leads to an idea of personalizing each person’s experience with their app to that of their tastes. Krishna takes this idea further by proposing that we create what he calls back pocket apps. “Unlike the buzzing and beeping of other apps begging you to play with them, this app, well, it likes your pocket. It lives there. It wants to be hidden”. Just the very idea of a back pocket app reframes how we could design things. Rather than making people interact with the screens, if the app itself could do things automatically without our needing to click, wouldn’t that be a fantastic experience?
One such experiment that did this was Square’s Wallet:
“With the Square experiment, when you were within fifty meters of a store, your name and picture showed up on the cash register without you having to wake up your phone, or even open the Square app… And since it started working within fifty feet, this actually allowed cafes to delight frequent customers by preparing a typically ordered item before they even walked up to the counter”.
Fantastic right?
Admittedly, the experiment ended unsuccessful, but the promise still remains. The opportunity still exists. It’s definitely a challenge to reach that level of personalization, maybe it will never be solved, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to get there. The possibility that there will be a day that things are designed to match each of our specific and individual needs excites me. I hope it does for you too.
It’s about time we leverage technology instead of serving them.
Leverage Computers Instead Of Serving Them
We’ve been slaves to technology for the longest time. Krishna speaks of this in more detail:
“While we deservingly adore our age of bits, the incredible progress we have made, and the incredible impact it has had on our lives, we remain lackeys to bits and their needs. We are forced to navigate complex databases to obtain simple information. We are required to memorize countless passwords with rules like one capital letter, two numbers and a punctuation mark”.
Technology has raised the bar for our we live our lives, yet still have to conform to the programming or coding languages rather than our natural ones. We have to learn how to translate what we do. It’s about time that we flip the paradigm. Software such as Webflow are beginning this path, eliminating the need for programming on the back-end to get to your desired outcome.
The world has made massive strides of progress in how we live. Things can be done faster, cheaper, and better with the developments of today. However, let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted by the shiny objects of screens and apps in our search of innovation in our general community. Let’s design alongside people, meeting where they are, and truly bring things that are innovative.
GM Espeleta is currently a Senior CX Researcher in First Circle. He is passionate about bringing lasting change and impact to people from different walks of life through development, innovation, and design. On a day-to-day, he makes sense of the world around and how best can products and services meet people where they are.
Image Sources
The Best Interface Is No Interface Cover: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technology-ebook/dp/B00T0ER57I
7 Deadly Sins of Innovation: https://marketoonist.com/2017/09/7-deadly-sins-of-innovation.html
Screen based thinking & Screenless Thinking: https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/back-pocket-apps-lets-reconsider-wireframe/
Glasbergen Comic: http://www.gavinoleary.com/tag/thinking/
Square Wallet: https://producthabits.com/how-square-became-a-30-billion-company-by-reimagining-payments/
